Ukulele Strings

George Keoki Lake · Post by **George Keoki Lake** » 27 Mar 2003 10:27 pm

Just wondering if any of you ukulele players have experienced any problems obtaining strings for the little critter. I teach ukulele. One of my students had a quite a bit of trouble finding proper strings in any of our many music stores. Anyway, I recalled a Hawaiian telling me the best strings were to be found in a spool of nylon fishing line, 30 gauge. Upon my recommendation, my student popped into a sporting store, bought a spool for less than $3.00 and I restrung her ukulele. Man, what a nice sound! Unbelieveable. She has enough nylon line left over to restring probably 50 ukuleles !
Just for your information....

Jesse Pearson · Post by **Jesse Pearson** » 27 Mar 2003 11:40 pm

Thanks Keoki, that will come in handy one day when I want to impress my girl, by changing her strings with fishing line! I'll tell her a very wise Hawaiian guitar guru showed me this old trick from the islands!

Blake Hawkins · Post by **Blake Hawkins** » 28 Mar 2003 4:58 am

George,
I've been using Martin M-600 strings.
The set is : 1st: .021
2nd: .032
3rd: .036
4th: .025

I tune it : G C E A (Low to High)

The strings I use were ordered from "Just Strings."
With "Just Strings" I can order strings for all my instruments at the same time.

It is very difficult to find Ukulele strings in local music stores.

Blake

Roy Thomson · Post by **Roy Thomson** » 28 Mar 2003 5:42 am

Hi George,
I have five sets of Martin Ukulele strings,
M600. They were given to me years ago by a
music store owner who went out of business.
These have not been out of the package and should work fine.
If you send me an envelope with some postage I will be glad to send them on to you at no charge.
Email me if you have any questions.

Roy

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George Keoki Lake · Post by **George Keoki Lake** » 28 Mar 2003 12:54 pm

Very kind of you Roy...I would need your snail address...don't seem to have it. Mahalo nui loa,

Roy Thomson · Post by **Roy Thomson** » 28 Mar 2003 1:32 pm

George,
My address is on my site.(Signature below)
Just scroll down a bit when you
get there.
Roy

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Paul Osbty · Post by **Paul Osbty** » 29 Mar 2003 11:37 am

A bit off-topic, but I have to ask.

This disussion brought back an early memory of my Father playing his ukulele in about 1960. When he tuned it, he told me he remembered how by singing "My Dog Has Fleas" to each open string pitch, low to high. Now I remember the tuning this way, also. I haven't thought about that in years! He grew up in Montana/N. Dakota from 1930 to 1950.

Was this a local thing or was this known to others as well?

Andy Volk · Post by **Andy Volk** » 29 Mar 2003 12:33 pm

I believe it's a widely known bit of popular culture, Paul, like the "Shave and a haircut - two bits" routine or "lefty loosey, righty tighty" for turning screws.

Post by **Brad Bechtel** » 29 Mar 2003 1:42 pm

Let's move this to Music instead of No Peddlers.

Russ Young · Post by **Russ Young** » 29 Mar 2003 2:04 pm

"My dog has fleas" is about all I remember from messing around with an old uke we found in our attic in the mid-60's ... thanks for reminding me of that!

Paul Osbty · Post by **Paul Osbty** » 29 Mar 2003 5:08 pm

Thanks, guys. It isn't just me! Funny how tuning a ukulele, of all things, can get into the pop-culture of musicians, much less an Air Force pilot from Montana!

A good title for a ukulele CD sampler if I ever heard one.

John Kavanagh · Post by **John Kavanagh** » 31 Mar 2003 6:21 am

"My dog has fleas", for whatever weird reason, is pretty universal. My favourite ukulele website is fleamarketmusic.com. It may have something to do with the meaning of the name - "ukulele" means something like "jumping flea", I've heard.

I've used fishing line - 25 or 30 lb test for the top string. If you're using the re-entrant (high fourth string) c or d tunings that are most common, you can use that for the top and bottom strings, and something a little heavier (35 or 40?) for the middle two. Ukuleles were used in the school system in my home town (Halifax NS), and the guy who maintained them had two reels in his shop, which strung a lot of ukes.

For nylon-strung instruments, I found the monofilament sounded as good, and was as in tune, as an average nylon string but not as good as the best ones. The main difference is the breaking-in period - they take longer to stretch into stability.

25-lb test is approximately the same as 0.60mm nylon. I've also used it as the top string on lutes and the high a' string on an 8-string classical guitar.

Wouldn't it be great to buy strings for all your instruments in 200 yard reels for a few bucks?

I order my uke strings from Pyramid or juststrings.com now, by the way...

<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by John Kavanagh on 31 March 2003 at 06:29 AM.]</p></FONT>

Tom Campbell · Post by **Tom Campbell** » 31 Mar 2003 5:38 pm

Musicians Friend (on the internet) has ukulele strings by D'Addario for $2.99 a set. I just bought two sets last week for my grand daughter.

Nylon

B-.024
F#-.032
D-.034
A-.028